Duncan did not go anywhere else after leaving the captain's room. Instead, he turned around and grasped the handle of the "Lost Homeland Door" again, and then pushed it inwards.

Zhou Ming returned to his dormitory.

Looking around, a familiar scene came into view. Everything in the room was exactly the same as when I left last time, and it seemed like I hadn't been back here for a long time.

Slowly passing through the entrance hall, stepping on the mottled and worn floor, Zhou Ming first came to the closed window as usual. He checked the marks on the windowsill and confirmed the status of the window lock. Although he knew it was meaningless, he still completed all the checks carefully and solemnly picked up the diary hanging by the window and wrote down the results of today's inspection in the blank part of the book:

[The doors and windows are all intact. This room has never been opened while I was away.]

After leaving this new record, he let out a light breath and then slowly walked to the desk.

On the desk, some tiny green sparks were crackling and jumping, and the gradually spreading flames were outlining the contours of an object bit by bit, and the whole outlining process was nearing completion.

It was a ship, a steam-powered ship with a beautiful white hull and tall chimneys that looked quite advanced.

Zhou Ming watched this scene calmly, without any surprise on his face.

The "model" of the White Oak appeared in this room, but... why? Why did it suddenly appear here? What happened to the ship?

Zhou Ming raised his head and looked at the shelf not far away. The "models" of Lost Hometown and Plande on the shelf were still lying quietly between the grids.

The "items" that were completely burned by the fire of the spirit body and completely controlled by oneself would appear on the desk of this bachelor apartment in the form of precise models. This was an established rule. This was the case for the Lost Homeland and Plande, and the White Oak...

Zhou Ming recalled his first encounter with the ship.

The White Oak had indeed been burned by his spiritual fire once, and the entire ship had even been "swallowed" by the Lost Homeland. But perhaps he was not proficient in controlling the spiritual fire at that time. After the "burning", the White Oak did not become a "collection" on his desk, but only left a mark, and this state has continued to this day.

Zhou Ming sat down at the desk, quietly watching the green sparks jumping on the table and completing the last outline of the White Oak, his expression thoughtful.

He was certain that he had not paid attention to the movements of the White Oak during this period, nor had he actively "triggered" the fire mark on the ship, so this change was not caused by him - it was the White Oak. The ship obviously encountered something, which caused the mark on the ship to be activated, and even directly "activated" the entire ship to become one of the "collections" here.

Zhou Ming narrowed his eyes slightly and tried again to locate the position of the White Oak and sense its current state.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, his expression slightly solemn.

Even in this dormitory, he still couldn't confirm exactly where the White Oak was. His vague perception only roughly pointed in the direction of the Frost City-State in the world opposite the door. When trying to confirm the status of the White Oak, he got a somewhat strange feedback.

He actually felt that the entire ship was wrapped in sea water.

On the desk, the jumping of the dark green sparks stopped, and the precise model of the White Oak lay quietly in front of Zhou Ming, with every detail being lifelike.

After a slight hesitation, Zhou Ming reached out and picked up the model of the White Oak, placing it in front of him and observing it carefully.

But he didn't see anything wrong.

After fiddling with it for a while, Zhou Ming shook his head, realizing that he couldn't confirm the status of the ship here - he still had to go to Frost to confirm the situation.

He stood up from his desk, holding the White Oak in his hand, and was about to put this new "collection" on the shelf first, but after taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped beside a mirror.

He looked at the mirror, and in the mirror, what he was holding in his hand was not the White Oak, but a strange ship shrouded in thick black fog and large shadows!

The outline of that ship was vaguely similar to that of the White Oak, as if they were of the same origin, but the overall texture was unreal, like a phantom. Traces of damage and destruction could be seen everywhere on the hull, as if it had been sleeping on the seabed for many years. Zhou Ming stared at the ship in the mirror, then lowered his head after a moment and saw that what he had in his hand was indeed just a model of the White Oak.

After a brief moment of surprise and contemplation, Zhou Ming suddenly put the model of the White Oak aside. He quickly walked to the shelf, took the models of the Lost Homeland and the Plande City-State, and tested them one by one in front of the mirror.

They don't change in the mirror.

Only the White Oak showed a strange "other appearance" in the mirror.

Zhou Ming once again took the model of the White Oak to the mirror and looked at the black ship silhouette in the mirror thoughtfully.

It looked like a "reflection" of the White Oak in another dimension.

While thinking, he slowly reached out his hand towards the phantom in the mirror.

He only touched the cold, hard surface of the mirror.

※※※

Driving the boat alone, Lawrence watched the towering hull of the Black Oak gradually enlarge in his field of vision. The thick fog that seemed to be filled with shadows gradually enveloped his surroundings. A lantern hanging on the bow of the boat struggled to dispel the darkness around it, but it could only outline a hazy route for him.

He turned around and saw that the White Oak had become a blurry shadow in the mist. Although the two ships were so close when he was standing on the bridge of the White Oak, he now felt as if there was a gap between them. That gap was not a physical distance barrier, but some kind of... barrier between reality and illusion.

And now he is gradually crossing this barrier.

His mood calmed down. The surroundings became more and more weird and the environment became darker, but his mood became calmer, as if all the paths were clear and fate had shown him all the choices - he was going to go to the Black Oak, no matter what was waiting for him there.

But he was the only one who seemed to have calmed down—there was another passenger on the boat who didn't look so calm.

"Just let me go! Put a rope around my neck, you can even hang me on the mast!" Anomaly 077 grumbled. This ugly mummy had been chattering non-stop since just now. "As long as you can let me fall asleep, I will do anything you say... Even if you want me to convert to the goddess of storms... or the god of death, that's fine! I don't want to keep my eyes open anymore!"

Lawrence finally turned around and responded to the mummy for the first time since he set out: "Can you still convert to God?"

The mummy was stunned for a moment, then immediately nodded: "As long as you let me go back to sleep, I will convert to any god in my sleep!"

Lawrence thought about it, and then remembered a joke popular among sailors. A smile appeared on his face: "Then why don't you try to convert to the God of Wisdom?"

Anomaly 077 froze for a moment, and then after an unknown amount of time, he moved slightly, squeezing out a few words from his dry throat: "I can try plane geometry first..."

"You even dare to try the God of Wisdom. It seems that you are really desperate." Lawrence shook his head, feeling curious. "But why are you so scared? I read in the information that you are an abnormal person with a tendency to lose control, but now you are desperately trying to return to sleep?"

Anomaly 077 did not answer, but just curled up in a corner on the boat and stared at the green flame burning quietly on Lawrence's body with nervous eyes.

Lawrence looked down at his body, which had not yet recovered, and raised his head: "Is it because of this flame? Or is it because of the power behind this flame?"

Abnormal 077 said sullenly, "Don't you understand clearly?"

"I didn't expect that even an 'abnormal' like you would understand the reputation of the Lost Homeland," Lawrence said with some emotion. "I saw the description of you in the file, saying that you were conscious after losing control and could talk to people, but I didn't expect that your consciousness would reach this level... If you were not a mummy, I would almost think you were a human being."

Anomaly 077 lowered his head, seemed to have accepted his fate, and never spoke again.

Lawrence didn't care about the "sailor's" reaction. He now had countless mysteries to think about. A strange, out-of-control anomaly that deviated from the recorded data was insignificant compared to those mysteries.

So many unknowns, so many secrets.

How many years has it been since I felt this way?

It seemed that after bidding farewell to the Black Oak, the adventurer Lawrence had disappeared from this world, and the unknown and the distance became words in his memory until now.

The moment he saw the Black Oak again, adventurer Lawrence once again awakened from the depths of an old captain's heart.

He looked up and saw that the towering hull of the Black Oak was less than a few meters away from the small boat. He steered the small boat slowly closer, and stopped at the familiar place in his memory, picked up the oar and hit the hull.

A rope ladder was thrown down from above and landed on the bow of the boat.

Lawrence turned around and looked at Abnormal 077 huddled in the corner.

"Come aboard, sailor."

Anomaly 077 stood up reluctantly, lowering his head: "Yes, Captain."